The Hidden Hero of Harry's Rescue
by lovebirdy
Summary: A oneshot canon for my story The Chance to Change Fate, possibly canon-compliant for the books. Sure we know that the twins and Ron rescued Harry from the Dursley's in CoS, but how did they do it? And who helped them?


AN: This is mostly canon-compliant I think, just adding in background information. It's canon for my story The Chance to Change Fate, and hints at a future plot point ;) I hope you enjoy a glimpse into Ginny's innocence and cleverness before the Chamber. I might turn this into a series of TCtCF oneshots, but for now it's a standalone.

* * *

When her brothers came to her and asked her if she wanted to help Harry Potter, of _course_ she said yes! Harry Potter was, after all, the hero of the wizarding world, and pretty darn cute too—if a bit scrawny in person. They told her all about how the mean Muggles were starving him and that he had gotten in trouble for using magic—no doubt in an effort to try and contact Ron for some help. So she agreed to help, she'd always had a bit of a crush on him, especially after she saw him at the platform, but what little witch didn't?

Mum and Dad were of course useless, her mum was convinced that Ron had done something to make Harry upset and that's why he wasn't responding to any of their letters. Sure, Ron could be a prat, but Harry wasn't. Once Ron had received an owl from Hermione saying she also hadn't heard from him, Ginny's imagination ran wild with what those horrible muggles could be doing to Harry. It hadn't taken her long to put the pieces together about his home life, Harry's hand-me-down muggle clothes, but brand new robes, how skinny he was, how he cringed away from her mum's hug at the end of the school year, and the scraps of information that Ron could remember, well, it was obvious. To think, Harry didn't get Christmas presents until Hogwarts! His first friend was Ron, poor thing. It had made her very, very grateful for her family. She was never once lonely growing up, they didn't have much, but what they did have they shared amongst each other. Ginny had certainly never gone hungry in her life, not for a day. She knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that her family loved and adored her, and she them. And that's how it's supposed to be!

These thoughts propelling her, it was easy to come up with a plan to rescue Harry. Oh her dumb brothers, they meant well, they did. But flying to Harry on brooms? Taking the Knight Bus? She had snorted at the first option, and downright laughed at the second.

She looked askance at the twins when they presented these ideas to her, "I know you two are smarter than this, how would you get Harry's trunk and things on a broom, assuming any of our brooms would even make it that far?"

"Well—"

"—uh—"

"Exactly! Did you happen to do the math?" She pulled the map they had been consulting back in front of them. "It's almost 250 kilometres to Surrey, even Charlie's old Cleansweep can only go 80 kilometres an hour, and that's assuming it's in decent enough shape for that. Your Cleansweeps might be alright, but Ron's Shooting Star…well…"

"You make good points," the twins conceded.

"Well, what about the Knight Bus? It's bloody fast, too fast, really," Ron interjected.

Ginny rolled her eyes, "And with what money are we going to board it? Even if just one of us goes…"

They stared at each other for a moment.

"I knew I shouldn't've spent my pocket money on that new Cannons poster," Ron said morosely.

Fred patted him on the shoulder, "It's okay, Ginny's right, it would cost over a Galleon round-trip, and that's not including Harry's fare."

"Now for _my_ idea, which isn't utterly stupid or impractical," Ginny said. "Take the car!"

"The car?" They chorused.

"Shh!" Ginny said, looking around for their mum. The four of them sitting and talking peacefully was incredibly suspicious; if their mum discovered them, her sixth sense for trouble would have them all busy with chores through the end of the week.

"The car, the one Dad has in the shed? It flies!"

"What car?" Ron asked. Ginny then realised that her dad didn't get it until after they left for Hogwarts.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot you probably wouldn't know about it. But it flies, quite well too I'd imagine."

"It flies?"

"But isn't that—"

"—illegal?" The twins asked.

"Dad wrote a loophole into that law as you two well know. He loves Muggle stuff too much to stop tinkering with it. Yes, it flies. He told me all about it last year. Mum doesn't know of course."

The twins were looking thoughtfully at each other for a few moments, Ginny had always believed they could mind-speak, but she had no proof.

After a few questions about the car they agreed to her plan. Then they got to work.

Ron and Ginny were to keep their mum distracted and busy as much as possible, and therefore tired. Too tired to keep as good of an eye on the twins. The twins used these opportunities to practice with the car. After a few days, they felt confident that they could fly it to Surrey and back, and they enacted their plan with only a month left of the holidays.

* * *

"Mum?" She asked innocently, the morning of the rescue.

"Yes dear?" Her mum was currently rolling dough out for a pie.

"Well, I was thinking, I go to Hogwarts this year…" She let thoughts of Harry suffuse her cheeks with a blush, "and well, I won't be seeing you for months and," she sniffed, hoping it wasn't too much, "I'm really going to miss you!"

Her mum scooped her up in a hug, "Oh Ginny, I'm going to miss you too! But you'll have your brothers of course. And we'll have the holidays of course."

"I know, but it won't be the same. I was wondering if, well, we could have a last girl's day like we used to?"

Once a year or so, her and her mum had a "girl's day" where they went to a beauty parlour in London and did some light shopping. Once they even caught a muggle show. They didn't exactly have money for luxuries like that all the time, but once a year her mum would pull the money together for them.

"Oh of course! I'm so sorry, I've been so preoccupied this last year, what with three troublemaking boys now at Hogwarts and other things…" She drifted off in thought. "We'll go today, it's perfect in fact. I'm delivering these pies to the Greens down the road once they're done. Matilda is a wonderful woman, really, but her cooking, well…Anyway, that'll give us enough money for a little day together, don't you think?"

"Oh I can't wait!" Ginny didn't really need to feign her excitement, her hair hadn't had a proper trim in ages, and she wanted to look her best for her first year at Hogwarts. "I'll help you with the pies! Just let me get washed up."

She dashed up the stairs and knocked thrice on the twins' door, which was the signal that the plan worked. She would run her mum ragged on their girl's day so that she'd go to bed early and sleep deeply while the boys were gone and came back. Hopefully Harry's sudden appearance would be so exciting that her parents wouldn't question too hard how he got there. Hopefully.

She washed up and returned to the kitchen, helping her mum roll all the dough out and arrange the fruit and meat into artful patterns before baking. She agreed with her mum about Mrs. Green's cooking, it left quite a bit to be desired. She had two older sons that had already left Hogwarts, but Ginny occasionally played with her daughter who was two years younger than Ginny. Felicia was alright, a little too serious for Ginny's taste, but she was a nice girl.

It was half-past ten before they had finished. Laden down with the pies, they walked together to the Green's, chitchatting all the way.

Mrs. Green must've been feeling generous that day, because when her mum wasn't looking she pressed an entire golden Galleon into Ginny's hand with a wink. Stunned, she tried to give it back but Mrs. Green brushed her off. The Greens had more money than the Weasley's, but then, who didn't? She wasn't as sore about it as Ron and Percy, but she was certainly aware of it. Mr. Green worked for Cleansweep, enchanting brooms, making him very popular with her brothers.

Ginny stuffed the Galleon into her pocket; she knew it wouldn't make her mum happy. 'Weasley's don't accept charity' and all that. Planning what to do with their time and money, they hurried back to the Burrow, changed into their best muggle clothes, and headed off to a wizarding salon in London. It was half muggle, half wizarding, and quite a brilliant place in Ginny's opinion. An old schoolmate of her mum's worked there and gave them a little discount whenever they could afford to visit. They got their hair done, Ginny begging for some light highlights in her hair, which was never allowed. She did however manage to talk her into getting her ears pierced. She had wanted to ever since her friend Luna had pierced hers, but unlike Luna, she didn't dare do it without permission. Mr. Lovegood took a rather…free attitude to parenting. Her mother did not.

And so the day went, and for a time Ginny was even able to forget the plan to rescue Harry. It was dark before they got home, Ginny still fingering the small gold studs in her ears, her head filled with images from the muggle play they had attended.

As expected, her mum was exhausted and after making a quick "breakfast" for her dad, she went up to bed. Her dad bade them goodnight and they trouped up the stairs. After an hour passed, the foursome met downstairs as planned. Ginny wrapped up some sandwiches and water bottles for the journey as they went over the plan one more time, just to be certain. Ginny had nicked her mum's wand to send the all-okay signal from a window near the shed. The boys started up the car in the distance and she listened hard for any noise from her parent's and Percy's rooms. They weren't that worried about Percy, he'd barely left his room all summer, not even to yell at the twins for all the racket they made. Hearing nothing, she cast the lumos charm three times, and watched them take off. She sneaked back upstairs, replaced her mum's wand, and set her alarm for five. The hardest part would come in the morning. They were absolutely banking on mum sleeping in, and if she didn't she would have to do her best to distract her until her brothers got home. Even with her mum going to bed early, even if they got home in record time, there's no way they would get home before five.

Ginny felt like she was forgetting something, but she was so tired she couldn't remember what it was before she dropped into a deep sleep.

Oh how she regretted that in the morning.

She apparently slept past her alarm, as she woke up to her mother standing over her, her face red in anger. "GENEVRA MOLLY WEASLEY, WHERE ARE YOUR BROTHERS?"

Ginny blinked and swallowed before opening her mouth to answer.

"AND DON'T YOU LIE TO ME YOUNG LADY!"

Ginny couldn't help it, she started crying. "I d-don't know," she wailed "what is going on, w-why are you yelling at me?"

The tears softened her mother, and apparently worked to convince her that she had nothing to do with it.

"Oh I'm sorry dear, I'm just. I'm just so _worried_!" She began to pace. "How could they, how dare they, what in Merlin's name could they possibly…" she muttered, stomping back downstairs, forgetting about Ginny. It was then Ginny remembered what she had forgotten. The clock. She slapped a hand to her forehead, of course the clock would tell her mum the boys weren't home! She had forgotten to stick their hands at 'home' or hide it.

Her brothers were dead. They were dead. Guiltily, she put on her dressing gown and went downstairs, figuring she could at least try to calm her mother down before they got back.

That idea however, well intentioned as it was, seemed to have the opposite effect. The more she nervously chattered away, the harder her mum slammed kitchen utensils around, eggs exploded instead of cracking neatly, her mum muttering all the while. What made it even worse was that her dad didn't answer her firecalls. She pitied him when he finally came home. Finally she said she was going to try and get some more sleep and went upstairs. Of course, sleep was out of the question now. She climbed out of her window and onto the roof. There was a small flat section above her room, which stuck out from the side of the house, as it was an addition to the house rather than an original part of it. It had made her nervous and sick as a child, but she now knew it was perfectly safe. There was a small balcony, well, it was more of a large ledge, maybe for some plants, but it was just the right height for even a small girl to climb up to the roof. From there she could see most of the property; she huddled up against the peak of the house and waited.

She didn't have to wait long.

She saw the blue car angling downwards surprisingly skilfully, but as it landed it was out of her sight. Of course, she didn't need to see it to know what happened next, her mother's shouts practically echoed in the early morning silence.

After they had ceased she climbed back down, intending to steal some breakfast before Harry started to eat. She assumed they would bring his stuff upstairs and let him unpack. Entering the kitchen, she realized she was wrong when she locked eyes with his green ones, her stomach fluttered and she gave an involuntary squeak. Horribly embarrassed, she ran back up the stairs, not feeling very hungry anymore.

Later that day, she cornered the twins and made them promise to never tell Harry that she had been a part of their plan to rescue him; she couldn't take it if he was angry with her because she forgot to account for the clock. Still, she glowed a little in their success. And maybe, just maybe she'd be able to make friends with him. If only her stomach would stop doing back flips anytime he was near.


End file.
